A man whose tattoo of a porcine police officer landed him in jail now says he wants the thing removed, but the state grant that paid for removal of gang-related body art ran out, his lawyer said.

Antonio Frasion Jenkins Jr. made a court appearance in Minneapolis on Tuesday, Jan. 15, and defense attorney Cindy McCollum told a Hennepin County judge they were exploring ways to remove the homemade tattoo, which shows a person holding a pistol to the mouth of a pig wearing a Minneapolis police uniform.

The pig carries the badge number of a cop Jenkins claimed he had a beef with.

In November, Jenkins, 20, of St. Louis Park, was charged with making terroristic threats by getting the tattoo and posting a photo of it on Facebook.

"My tattoo iz a pig get'n his brains blew out," read the caption on the photo, which has since been deleted. Jenkins is being held in the Hennepin County jail with bail set at $60,000, and McCollum asked that it be lowered to $5,000 so he could be released, return to his job at a pretzel shop and take steps to get the tattoo removed.

But Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Michael Radmer opposed a lower bail for the reputed member of the Bloods street gang. He told the judge that while the state "certainly would applaud" the effort to remove or minimize the tattoo, Jenkins "is actively involved in gang life."

"It's the state's position that this defendant posted a threat ... while he was on parole," Radmer told Hennepin County District Judge Lyonel Norris.

Norris said he'd rule in a few days.

Jenkins won't go anywhere for at least 10 days. He is on probation for a 2009 armed robbery, and until his sentence expires Jan. 24, he can't be released from jail.

He'd originally been sentenced under the state's Extended Juvenile Jurisdiction statute, in which youthful offenders are given sentences in both juvenile and adult courts, and serve the adult sentence only if they fail to abide by terms of their juvenile punishment.

After Jenkins violated an order to not have any contact with gang members and other rules, a judge sent him to the state prison in St. Cloud, and he was released under supervision in September 2011.

In the new case, he was charged with making a terroristic threat for the benefit of a gang, a felony. At the time, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said the tattoo crossed the line from body art to crime because the threat was against a specific person and Jenkins had the ability to carry it out.

The badge number on the pig in the tattoo is that of an officer who served on a gang-investigation squad working in territory claimed by the Bloods, the criminal complaint alleged. Prosecutors said a Hennepin County sheriff's deputy discovered the photo online and notified police, and the officer whose badge number was depicted interpreted the tattoo and the posting of the photo online as a threat against him and his family.

After the hearing, McCollum said Jenkins had been agreeable to getting the tattoo removed "from the start." ...The Department of Corrections once had a grant that paid for juvenile offenders housed at the prison at Red Wing to get tattoos removed, but Sarah Berg, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the program no longer existed.

McCollum said she's looked into tattoo removal and it can take 10 to 12 treatments and can cost from $400 to $2,000.

"It's an enormous amount of money when you just work at a pretzel shop in Shakopee," she said.

It certanly fits the profile of an Obama Supporter. Hates cops, looking for a freebe, Probably originated from Washington, Tacoma! Probably was once a Post Office Worker! I think you nailed it SL!!

Thanks NotA. I am sure this guy is an Obama supporter.

Actually, Le Dumbo is the one who said during the whole month of November that one of the reasons Obama won was that every black person in the USA voted against Romney.

I simply took Dumbo's opinion and conceded it for this one fine, upstanding, intelligent young man who is trying to turn his life around. Heck, I even acknowledged his job in the pretzel shop in Shakopee and said that was a good thing.

<quoted text>Thanks NotA. I am sure this guy is an Obama supporter.Actually, Le Dumbo is the one who said during the whole month of November that one of the reasons Obama won was that every black person in the USA voted against Romney.I simply took Dumbo's opinion and conceded it for this one fine, upstanding, intelligent young man who is trying to turn his life around. Heck, I even acknowledged his job in the pretzel shop in Shakopee and said that was a good thing.Is there really a pretzel shop in Shakopee? Really?

The pretzel shop is probably by the pawn shop next to the horse track.

<quoted text>Thanks NotA. I am sure this guy is an Obama supporter.Actually, Le Dumbo is the one who said during the whole month of November that one of the reasons Obama won was that every black person in the USA voted against Romney.I simply took Dumbo's opinion and conceded it for this one fine, upstanding, intelligent young man who is trying to turn his life around. Heck, I even acknowledged his job in the pretzel shop in Shakopee and said that was a good thing.Is there really a pretzel shop in Shakopee? Really?

There is little question that the lions share of black folks who voted for Obama did so simply because he is black.

<quoted text>There is little question that the lions share of black folks who voted for Obama did so simply because he is black.

The last number I saw on this demographic was 98% of the Black community vote for Obama. No reasons were given in the report I saw, but I don't think it is unreasonable to assume a majority did exactly that.

<quoted text>The last number I saw on this demographic was 98% of the Black community vote for Obama. No reasons were given in the report I saw, but I don't think it is unreasonable to assume a majority did exactly that.

Would someone be a low information voter if you vote for (or against) someone based on the color of their skin?

<quoted text>If you vote for someone based strictly on skin color, it does make it much easier to decide who to vote for. No mucking about with all of that politics and campaigns and qualifications nonsense.

Excellent point!

You don't have to read a damned thing. Just keep playing your video games. Makes sense to me.

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